Twitter Limits Donald Trump Jr.'s Account Over Coronavirus Misinformation
Twitter limited President Donald Trump’s eldest son’s account this week after Donald Trump Jr. shared a viral video of doctors making false and misleading claims about the coronavirus.
The video, which was published by Breitbart, was also removed from Facebook after it was viewed over 14 million times.
Twitter hit Donald Trump Jr. for sharing the video, saying that it violated the platform’s policy on “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”
The tweet has been taken down.
https://twitter.com/Surabees/status/1288101467581227011?s=20
In the video, one of the doctors announces, “This virus has a cure, it’s called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax.” She also says, “You don’t need masks, there is a cure.”
In a statement to CNN, Facebook said that they have removed the video because it shared “false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19.”
President Donald Trump also shared part of the video, which focused on a woman named Stella Immanuel, who claimed that she has used hydroxychloroquine on hundreds of patients.
However, Immanuel’s ideas about treating COVID-19 are not her most outrageous. In 2015, she claimed that scientists were hoping to vaccinate against religion, saying, “They found the gene in somebody’s mind that makes you religious, so they can vaccinate against it,” per The Daily Beast.
In mid-June the FDA revoked emergency use of hydroxychloroquine, saying, “We made this determination based on recent results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized patients that found these medicines showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery.”
The president amplified a tweet on Monday night attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci and accusing him of “misleading the American public” about hydroxychloroquine. In response, Fauci said, “I don’t know how to address that. I’m just going to certainly continue doing my job.”
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